Author, pioneer Canadian literary historian and critic, educator
and administrator William Cyril Desmond Pacey was born May 1, 1917
in Dundedin, New Zealand, the son of William and Mary Pacey. His
father was killed in the First World War, and Pacey and his mother
emigrated to England, where Desmond Pacey received his early
education. In 1931, mother and son emigrated to Canada, where
Pacey's mother remarried and settled on a farm in Glanford Station,
Ontario.

Pacey won several entrance scholarships to Victoria College,
University of Toronto, where he received a First Class Honours
Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Philosophy in 1938. In 1939
he married Mary E. Carson of Ottawa, and the couple had 7 children.
Pacey was awarded a Massey Travelling Fellowship to complete his
doctorate degree at Cambridge University in 1941.

Dr. Pacey began his university English teaching career in 1940 at
Brandon College, University of Manitoba. He came to the University
of New Brunswick (UNB) in 1944, where he served as head of the
department until 1969, and taught until his death in 1975.

By the nineteen fifties, Dr. Pacey had established himself as one
of Canada's leading literary critics and historians, with the
publication of scholarly works including Frederick Philip Grove
(1945), Creative Writing in Canada: A Short History of English-Canadian Literature (1952, 1961,
1966), and Ten Canadian Poets: A
Group of Biographical and Critical Essays (1958, 1966). He was
instrumental in promoting Canadian literary studies at UNB and
throughout Canada, and was a popular speaker at both scholarly and
informal conferences.

Dr. Pacey also was a creative writer. He authored three children's
books, The Cow with the Musical Moo, and Other Verses for Children
(1952), Hippity Hobo and the Bee, and Other Verses for Children
(1952), and The Cat, the Cow, and the Kangaroo: The Collected
Children's Verse of Desmond Pacey (1967). He also published Waken,
Lords and Ladies Gay: The Selected Short Stories of Desmond Pacey
in 1974. However, it was his pioneering efforts in Canadian
literary criticism that brought him national and international
acclaim. Other scholarly publications by Dr. Pacey include Ethel
Wilson (1968) and Essays in Canadian Criticism (1969). He also
edited A Book of Canadian Stories (1947, 1950, 1961, 1967), Our
Literary Heritage: An Anthology of Literature in English (1966),
Frederick Philip Grove: Critical Views of Canadian Writers (1970),
and Selections from Major Canadian Writers (1974), and he co-edited
the standard work Literary History of Canada (1965).

One of Dr. Pacey's life-long passions was studying the works of
local Fredericton poets such as Bliss Carman and Sir Charles G.D.
Roberts and keeping their literary legacies alive. In 1956, he
edited The Selected Poems of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, 1860-1943,
followed by the 1974 edition of the Selected Poems of Sir Charles
G.D. Roberts. But Pacey's real goal was to publish scholarly
editions of both the collected poems and the collected letters of
Charles G.D. Roberts, and he obtained a grant from the Canada
Council to pursue this research, and over the years, he collected
Roberts' letters and supervised the preliminary research.
Unfortunately, Dr. Pacey's untimely death in 1975 temporarily
halted these projects, but his work was carried on by other
researchers. The introductions to both The Collected Letters of
Charles G.D. Roberts (1989) and The Collected Poems of Sir Charles
G.D. Roberts: A Critical Edition (1985) pay tribute to Pacey's
principal role in bringing these works to fruition.

In addition to his extensive book publications, Dr. Pacey also
wrote approximately thirty short stories, scholarly journal
articles and book, film, and play reviews, and he contributed
articles to several encyclopedias.

Dr. Pacey's administrative and teaching career at the University of
New Brunswick (UNB) was equally as distinguished as his literary
career. He served as Secretary of the Faculty from 1952 to 1969
and as Acting Dean of Arts from 1955 to 1956. From 1960 to 1970,
Dr. Pacey worked to expand the graduate studies program at UNB,
particularly in his position as Dean of Graduate Studies. In 1970,
he became Vice President Academic, and from 1972-1973 he served
simultaneously as Acting President.

Dr. Pacey actively participated in a wide variety of organizations
and on various committees. At UNB, he served as the first Chair of
the local Humanities Association, Chair of the Library Committee,
Chair of the Founders' Day Committee, President of the Faculty
Club, Associated Editor and Chair of the Editorial Board of The
Fiddlehead, and on many other committees.

Dr. Pacey's achievements were recognized throughout his long and
distinguished career. In 1955 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Canada, and in 1972 was awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal
of the Royal Society of Canada for his "distinguished contribution
to Canadian literature." Both Mount Allison University and the
University of New Brunswick conferred honorary degrees on Dr. Pacey
in 1973, just two years prior to his death in 1975.